Honda's New Hydrogen-Powered Car Is Amazing... If You Happen to Have a Hydrogen Station

Honda’s newest hydrogen-powered fuel cell vehicle (FCV) is pretty amazing. It takes three minutes to fuel, and will run for 400 miles on a single fill up. It costs about one-tenth of previous models, and the fuel-cell system is roughly the size of a standard V-6 engine. And of course, there’s the fact that the car’s only emissions are in the form of water vapor, which is harmless to the environment.

So what’s the catch? Unless you have hydrogen station or two at your disposal, you’ll have no way to fuel it.

While companies have been trying to bring such stations to California and the Pacific Northwest, not much progress has been made. But according to Forbes, that may soon change:

Honda might have a solution, though: it’s developing a compact Smart Hydrogen Station, enabling you to use high-pressure electrolysis to produce your own hydrogen at home. There’s no word on when that might be available, but if it’s affordable, it could be a huge breakthrough in speeding the adoption of fuel cell vehicles.

“If it’s affordable.” That’s a big “if.” But hopefully we’ll learn more soon, as the vehicle is set to be showcased on Wednesday at the Tokyo Motor Show. And while an affordable home-based hydrogen station isn’t exactly “Mr. Fusion,” it could still be a huge leap forward in the future of automobiles.